The Budget
THE BUDGET -- (House of Representatives - February 26, 2008)
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Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam Speaker, we are looking forward to spending some time on the floor over the next several months and several weeks and spending some time talking with our colleagues and talking with the American people about the budget.
Everybody hears a lot about the budget and about this budget document that is several hundred pages thick, that it is what directs t he spending, and I think that most Americans know that the House of Representatives is basically the keeper of the purse, if you will, for the American public.
Now, some of my colleagues from the Republican Study Committee and I want to make certain that we all understand how this money is spent because we fully believe that the American people have the right to know, they have the right to know and they should know, how their budget gets spent, how those tax dollars get spent because we know, Madam Spe aker, this is not the Government's money; it is the taxpayers' money. And we want to shine the light on how those dollars are being spent. We want to break down this process. We want to demystify the process and invite the American people to join us and follow us.
We believe Government spends too much money. We believe that Government never gets enough of your money. They never get enough of the taxpayers' dollars and, indeed, one of my favorite analogies is from one of my favorite plays, ``Little Shop of Horrors,'' and I think we have many Americans who fully believe that the U.S. House of Representatives, the Congress, that the Federal Government, that this big enormous bureaucracy that liberals have built as a monument to themselves, the bureaucracy never gets enough of the taxpayers' money. It's like Audrey II in ``Little Shop of Horrors,'' never can get enough to eat. And what that bureaucracy wants to just chomp away on every day is your money. It is the taxpayers' money.
So we want to make cert ain that we spend some time going through this budget process spelling out where those dollars get spent, how the dollars get spent, actually, basically, holding a classroom for our colleagues, spending some time talking about the budget document; talking about the consequences that come with baseline budgeting; talking about what would happen if we went to zero-based budgeting; talking about performance-based budgeting; dissecting the appropriations bills; highlighting the risk of growing entitlements; and also addressing the waste that we find in earmarks.
So today as our first session, we thought it would be a good idea to review how Washington spent the taxpayers' money last year.
We have it broken down by household, and we always find that when we speak in terms of billions and trillions in Washington-speak, that we are talking about numbers that are really big. So we went in here and said how much is it per household that was spent in 2007 in the name of Government. What did we appropriate and s pend of your money? Came out to be $24,106 per household. That's the highest total since World War II.
The Federal Government collected about $21,992 per household in taxes. So what did that give us? If you are spending $24,106 per household and then you are taking in $21,992 per household, Madam Speaker, think about that. That is each household's share of taxes: $21,992.
But it wasn't enough. That wasn't enough. Audrey II wanted a little bit more. The bureaucracy wanted more. The bureaucracy couldn 't curb their spending. So they spent that $24,106. So that leaves the taxpayer and future generations a deficit each year that becomes a debt. And the deficit last year came out to $2,114 per household.
All of that is going to land in the laps of our children, and in my case, a grandchild that is going to arrive in May. Welcome. Because there's going to be a debt from the U.S. Government on that child's head when he arrives.
Madam Speaker, I want to yield at this time to the gentleman from Californ ia (Mr. Campbell) who chairs our Republican Study Committee budget committee and is doing great work on this issue. He's going to take the lead on many of these issues; and at this time I yield to the gentleman from California.
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Mrs. BLACKBURN. I thank the gentleman for that. So we have got the $21,992 that the average household paid in 2007, and then they had on top of that the $2,100 deficit for the year, and the Federal Government spending $24,106. But what you are saying is the current budget policies are going to push that up even another $3,000 per family over the next 3 years.
I just highlight to my colleagues that we have talked a good bit today about the overall budget process and why we think the taxpayer has the right to know how this body spends your money. The taxpayer has the right to know what is going to be there in the form of a deficit and a debt that their children are going to have to pick up the burden on and carry that burden.
The taxpayer has the right to know what is looming with Medica re and Medicaid and Social Security and the entitlements that are there that are put on automatic pilot. They have the right to know what the budget processes are, what is the difference in baseline budgeting and zero-base budgeting and performance-based budgeting; what are the benefits that would be derived by transparency.
They have the right to know how the Budget Committee goes through the process of setting the parameters on this budget. And certainly they have the right to know what takes place in the appropriations process. They have the right to know what is wasteful spending and what are earmarks and what is in front of us with this entire document.
Madam Speaker, I thank you for the time that you have yielded to us. We are going to be back next week. We are going to continue to talk about this issue. I hope that people will follow this with us at House.Gov/Hensarling/RSC. We would hope that we hear from them and that we bring an element of transparency and therefore accountability to the bud geting process.
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